Kerala CM brokers peace between warring media and lawyers

Kochi, July 23 (IANS) The tiff between the media and the lawyers community in Kerala appeared to have blown over on Saturday following conciliation talks led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with the warring groups.

Addressing the media after the two-hour talks, Vijayan said that both the sections are vital to society.

“Till the 19th of this month, these two sections had the best of relations, but it has since turned bad. The relationship between the two should now be the same as it was prior to July 19th. We have decided to set up a committee of the two which will function as the watchdog,” said Vijayan.

The proposed committee will be chaired by the Advocate General and consist of three representatives each from the Bar Council and the media, and when the state police is required, the police chief can take part in the meeting.

The problem began early this week after media reports said that a government pleader had misbehaved with a woman.

The lawyers claimed that the pleader was falsely implicated and police and media are hand in glove in the conspiracy.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, things went out of hand at Kochi, when clashes took place between the two groups, while a clash also occurred in the state capital on Thursday. Kerala Police have registered half a dozen cases.

“An earlier round of discussion was led by Advocate General and it has been decided to conduct a judicial probe into the happenings. A few cases also have been registered by the police. All that will go forward,” added Vijayan.

On Friday, Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur held talks with representatives of the journalists in the national capital and also asked his colleague Justice Kurian Joseph to look into the matter.

Following this, two senior judges of the Kerala High Court – P.N.Ravindran and P.R.Ramachandra Menon – were asked to sort out things. They met with journalists’ representatives in the state capital on Friday.